Joshua
Really enjoyed this poem - I used to be a great fan of the pre-Socratics
when Philosophy was poetry and science and thought...
cheers
Steve KK
On 11/12/03 1:39 AM, "Joshua Nene" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Strangeness and Quirks of Charm
>
> According to Philolaus of Tarentum
> there's a counter-earth opposed in our orbit,
> unseen always, behind the sun's track, offset
> to the still centre of the carcanet of spheres.
>
> On this counter-earth nothing changes, nothing moves,
> shapes and thoughts of shape like breath formed once
> are still as a pediment of basalt,
> no sly fingers of air nor dabbed paws of water
> fret and unbind the strands of their form.
> It is the true silent home of philosophers.
>
> It was said, too, that our sun forms the tail-point
> of Draco, that long snaking chain, that stretches
> above the grain lands and circumpolar wastes,
> figure of arcane fire or calk-seal of salt.
>
> This dragon-snake's mouth is a s wide as the maw
> and open door of time, its tunnel torso chute
> the drop of space and gravity, as trapped souls
>
> fall, head-charmed, into the strange dawn and mouth
> of laboured birth, yowling at the cold fingers
> of air, the fresh confinement and squared threat
> of four dimensions, the blinding nuclear eye
> of fusion, at polished sand's fractures of light.
>
>
> JN
>
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